With the Planning Commission hearing for a proposed eight-story development to replace the single-story Susan’s Massage, Four Seasons restaurant and Excellent Dry Cleaners building at the corner of Larkin and Olive slated to be held in three weeks time, the project has been completely redesigned.

Inside, the 719 Larkin Street project still totals 42 units, all one-bedrooms ranging from 556 to 683 square feet. But instead of a single-restaurant space on the corner, the ground floor has been reconfigured with four commercial storefronts ranging from 544 to 921 square feet in size and fronting both Larkin and Olive Streets.

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Comments from “Plugged-In” Readers

Well, it’s still dull and uninspired IMHO but it’s less jaringly so and fits with the neighborhood better. Clearly they are going for low end construction costs but they probably have to in order to keep rents as low as possible which is necessary in this area. After all, it’s not Noe Valley.

This looks contextural with trendy color, but the original version had more personality: both are rather barren. While this might fly-through the planning process filters, perhaps the ground-level cladding could be more enticing: like an accent, possibly a showy-yet-durable surface that reflects Vietnamese construction, whatever those material(s) might be.

This is a n*-sh*tter: On the Nextdoor site an anti-gentrification Tenderloin resident stated the ‘loin has been declared a drug-permissive zone by the city and you can do what you want there (drug-wise), truly making it a sanctuary within a sanctuary (the entire city). That’s almost enough reason to rent a pied-a-terre in this building and open an opium den or crack house if true.

Well, this design appears to have windows you can open for ventilation. I couldn’t tell if the previous one did. Both designs seem fairly superficially different. At the end of the day, you have a big box for people to live in, and whether you sheath it in simplified traditionalism or Brutalism, both are not new and in the end, will probably not stand out. In an architecturally heterogenous neighborhood, which is any city over 100 years of age, it’s just another outfit in the crowd.

I think this design is handsome. The other, while nice looking as an illustration would look dull and Brutalist and wouldn’t weather well. Not everything has to be fussy, especially when surrounded by older, ornamented buildings.